Description

Position Summary
The Director, Certifying Exam Administration provides strategic and operational leadership for the successful administration, delivery, and continuous improvement of ABEM's large-scale, high-stakes, assessments. This role will be directly responsible for the development and implementation of the Certifying Exam administration. This role translates executive priorities into executable program plans, and ensures exam integrity, operational readiness, compliance, and service excellence across recurring exam cycles. The Director leads cross-functional coordination, risk management, stakeholder communication, and change management efforts to support reliable delivery, effective adoption of new processes and technologies, and a high-quality candidate and volunteer experience.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

1.    Provides strategic oversight and daily leadership for recurring exams, especially the multiple administrations of the Certifying Exam; ensures on-time, high-quality delivery and exam integrity.

 2.    Translates executive direction into detailed program plans with milestones, deliverables, owners, resources, and reporting expectations. Establishes exam decision-making pathways, critical milestones, readiness checkpoints, and escalation practices.

 3.    Leads readiness reviews and ensures risks, dependencies, and mitigation plans are visible to executive leadership. Leads post-mortems, improvement backlogs, and process enhancement efforts that improve efficiency, quality, clarity, and stakeholder experience.

 4.    Directs cross-functional planning for exam administration, delivery logistics, volunteer coordination, candidate management, case selection, and staffing needs.

 5.    Leads Certifying Exam administrations as Administrative Lead and ensures the successful completion of each administration. Attends all Certifying Exam administrations.

 6.    Leads budget planning, resource recommendations, vendor coordination, and expenditure oversight related to exam operations.

 7.    Oversees work assigned to contributors and partner teams; facilitates decision-making, resolves impediments, and ensures accountability for deliverables.

 8.    Develops alternative models and plans for exam administrations to address resource concerns and new cases and modalities.

 9.    Leads structured change management efforts, including communications, training, readiness activities, adoption tracking, and reinforcement.

10.  Ensures documentation and communication of system, process, policy, or operational changes; ensures appropriate approvals and clear stakeholder updates.

 11.  Directs the prioritization of work for the information and system tools and technologies that support the Certifying Exam administration.

 12.  Partners with Systems and Technology to support platform reliability, security, releases, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), and incident response planning. 

 13.  Upholds data governance, privacy, security, and compliance expectations aligned with organizational policies and exam program standards.

 14.  Develops, monitors, and communicates cycle health dashboards, KPIs, readiness indicators, risks, and leadership reports.

 15.  Represents exam programs in cross-functional meetings and supports leadership with policy, operational, and resource recommendations.

 16.  Oversees all meeting planning to support the Certifying Exam administration.

 17.  Performs other duties as needed or assigned.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

• Bachelor's degree in business, management, education, assessment, health administration, or related field; master's degree preferred. 
• Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in program management, exam administration, certification, credentialing, assessment operations, or related field. 
• Minimum of 4 years of experience leading staff, project teams, cross-functional initiatives, or major program operations preferred. 
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, high-stakes administrative programs with multiple timelines, contributors, risks, and stakeholder groups.
• Strong leadership, communication, facilitation, decision-making, and organizational skills.
• Ability to think quickly and make appropriate decisions with limited time.
• Ability to translate strategic priorities into executable plans, governance structures, and measurable deliverables. 
• Experience with risk management, change management, stakeholder management, process improvement, and operational readiness practices.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, including the ability to monitor KPIs, identify trends, evaluate risks, and recommend solutions. 
• Ability to manage sensitive information and uphold data governance, privacy, security, and compliance standards. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and collaboration tools; experience with exam administration platforms, scheduling systems, candidate portals, or related systems preferred. 
• Experience collaborating with technology partners on system updates, troubleshooting, release management, integrations, UAT, and incident response preferred.
• Ability to build effective working relationships with staff, volunteers, board of directors, executive leaders, vendors, and other stakeholders. 
• Ability to travel a minimum of 9 weeks per year supporting the Certifying Exam administration.

 
Physical Demands and Work Environment 
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk or listen. The employee frequently is required to use hands or fingers, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, sit, and reach with hands and arms. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is typically low to moderate. 

*This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an “at will” relationship.